


I'll name it when I'm damn good and ready.

by CertainlyNotMom



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Dubious Consent, Frottage, M/M, Masturbation, Mutual Masturbation, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Doctor (Doctor Who), Pining, Prison, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:20:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 20
Words: 20,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23283907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CertainlyNotMom/pseuds/CertainlyNotMom
Summary: The Doctor knows his time is short so he grabs Jack to try and make the most of the time he has left. Two hours later, they've been arrested and are on their way to a prison planet with no guards, no cells and no easy way out. With the bare minimum of supplies, they have to figure out how to survive, defend themselves from other prisoners and keep hold of the tattered threads of their sanity.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Comments: 18
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Due to my editing habits, this will be posted a minimum of 3 chapters behind. I would love me some beta readers so head on over to: https://certainlynotmom.wixsite.com/exhibita/drum to read everything I've written and offer feedback.

“Is this it? My death, Is it time?”

The snow melted through the knees of his suit as Ood sigma faded from view. He pulled himself to his feet and willed his shaking hands to be still as he fit the key into the door of the Tardis. Dropping his coat on the floor the Doctor stared at the console weighing what may well be the last decision he ever makes. The summons was clear, he knew where they wanted him to go and the heavy weight in the pit of his stomach told him that way lie death. 

“No.” He said to nothing and no one, He would not go quietly into that goodnight. He wanted to live. It had only been a couple of years in his tenth body, eleventh really if he were to acknowledge it but no. Nine hundred or so meagre years stretched thin over so many faces. He was too young to be this old. The Ood sphere could wait.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Jack Harkness poured himself another whiskey, it had been three months since Ianto’s death and hundreds of bottles. He drained the glass and filled it once more knowing that with his artron enhanced metabolism only a constant stream could ease the ache in his soul. His lover’s face still appeared behind his eyes when he closed them and he was thankful he slept so little. He had intended to be off this rock by now but getting off-world in the 21st century was hard to do and took more than a little time. Without the hub and the rift, his resources were limited. He knew he should leave Earth, there was nowhere on the planet ghosts of the past failed to surface he had simply been there so long that nearly everywhere was a memory. Eventually, everything would be a memory but he wouldn’t forget, not in a thousand years time.

He looked around his little bedsit, just him and the bottles in the yellow incandescent light. His coat was on the bed as if he’d just come in but he had lost track of how long it had been since he left. It took him a moment to place the wheezing, grating noise coming from the street but when he did he hung his head. What more was this world going to ask of him now? A stray thought brought a little boy in a red hoodie flashing through his mind and he shoved it back into the dark recesses of his brain. He looked out his window and spied the familiar blue box, so very out of place but perfectly blending in. He shrugged on his coat and headed downstairs to find out what peril the universe had found itself in today.

The night air was cold and a drizzle was threatening as he made his way out to the street. He tapped on the doors and they opened inward heedless of the sign they carried stating otherwise.

“Jack! I knew she’d find you! You aren’t where you were. Where you were isn’t there. Nothing is and you’re here and here doesn’t seem to be anywhere especially.”

Jack smiled at the Doctor’s babble. It had been too long since he heard that ramble. “Yeah Doc, that’s about the size of it. So what brings you to my doorstep at two in the morning?”

The doctor winced “Oh two, two is rude. I guess that’s still me, rude and not ginger. At least for a little while longer. You’re awake, though I didn’t wake you too? That would be really rude and I’m not trying to be rude. I’m trying to be friendly. Although being friendly varies wildly between species and cultures. Did you know that on Buart it is polite to wake someone by tipping them completely out of their bed? Still rude to do it at two in the morning although it isn’t two in the morning to them it is the equivalent of two in the morning and really fussing about what constitutes two in the morning is splitting hairs, don’t you think?”

Jack shook his head slightly to rid himself of the dizziness of following that logic and tried again. “So aside from the Timelord forgetting what time it is appropriate to wake humans, what brings you here?”

“Well the Tardis brought me here Jack, She brings me everywhere and it isn’t like you can hide from her, unique being that you are. A great big ball of fact stuffed in a nest of timelines all flowing around you. Nothing like you at all…”

Jack lost his patience. “Doctor, what do you want?” he folded his arms over his chest and levelled his best get-to-the-point stare. The Doctor floundered running his fingers through his hair to rub his neck. His face lost the manic glen and he looked at the ground.

“You’re busy. You’re busy and you said no and I’ve only ever asked Rose twice and I shouldn’t be here” The Doctor turned to retreat into the Tardis but Jack stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He lowered his voice and tried to put kindness back into it.

“I’m not busy Doctor, although with you here I’m sure I will be soon. I’m not telling you to leave. I just want to know why you are here.” The Doctor turned to look at Jack again weighing his options on just how much he was willing to embarrass himself. 

“I’m here for you, I thought...I don’t know what I thought. I don’t have much time when rightly I should have all the time. I want to live a little bit more and that’s you Jack, so alive! Impossibly alive. I thought that maybe you could show me how.” He wrung his hands and stared at the immortal with his deep brown eyes and Jack stared back not knowing what to make of him. The gaze held for a long moment but the Doctor broke it, casting his eyes to his feet before continuing. “I just came to give you some of the time I have left, can’t I do that?”

“You can Doc, you always could...but you don’t.” Jack frowned at the top of the Doctor’s head for a moment before lifting his chin to meet his eyes again. “What’s wrong Doctor, what do you need?” Wrenching his face from Jack’s hand he turned on his heel and marched back toward the console. 

“Come on Jack, get in and close the door. I’m not standing in the doorway all night. I’ll let you pick where we go, I showed you some of the Universe now you show me. It’s only fair. You're the only companion I’ve had that travelled before I got to them. Show me what you found on your own. Come on.”

“Is it just the two of us?” Jack stepped in the door and shut it behind him. What did he have to lose? No one was relying on him anymore.

“Yep.”The Doctor began to take them into the vortex.

“All right.” Jack didn’t ask where Rose and the Other Doctor were. He knew Donna had been returned to Chiswick and he imagined that things just fell apart. The Doctor hadn’t asked what happened to his team so he figured he’d return the favour. Men like him and the Doctor always ended up alone in the end. He could give this to his friend. All it would cost was his time and really who had more of that to give than he did.


	2. Chapter 2

In hindsight, Jack should have known he couldn’t take the Doctor anywhere without finding trouble. If it wasn’t Earth in trouble it was another planet and this time it was Gestea. Jack had visited Gestea last during his time agent days. It was one of the more mild pleasure planets where all you could see from the street was free-flowing alcohol and anything more risque had to be sought behind closed doors. The locals were desert-dwelling bipedal birds that chose to rent the ground level of their planet to off-worlders who performed most labour and provided tourist revenue. He picked it because he didn’t want to scare the Doc away before he had a chance to buy a nice bottle of hypervodka. He had hoped it would succeed where the whiskey had failed in getting him well and truly pissed. Unfortunately, before they had walked four blocks the Imperial guard had spotted and detained them. 

Apparently Gestea had a history of unscrupulously obtaining exotic off-world members of the Emperor's harem and less than 10 years prior in this time zone the Doctor had liberated the whole lot, insulted the entire ruling class and led a rebellion ousting the Emperor for his younger brother. Unfortunately, shortly after the Doctor left the status quo returned to normal and now little brother was afraid of the same fate since the Doctor was here again. Consequently, Jack found himself in a prison cell after less than two linear hours in the man’s company. 

The guard regarded the pair coolly and continued “Due to the overwhelming evidence against you, eyewitnesses, security footage and the recorded testimony of the Lord Emperor, you will be tried in absentia and transported for sentencing at the penal colony Drurn Q7G. Everything in your possession and your ship will be impounded on the polar ice caps until your release date. I am here to collect your personal effects”

The Doctor and Jack looked at each other and began calculating their escape. Slowly they began to empty their pockets with a few notable exceptions into the bin that passed through the cell door. The guard shoved the bin back. “All of your personal effects” He gestured towards them meaningfully. They removed their coats and added them to the pile along with the sonic and a small gun the Captain kept at his ankle. The guard made a noise in irritation. “All of it. You keep nothing. You go to Drurn with the same thing all of the off-world convicts get: what we give you. If you survive your sentence you’ll get it back.”

Jack raised his eyebrows and slid his braces off his shoulders while the Doctor turned his back and began to disrobe with shaking hands. Jack had his trousers, shirt and pants folded in a little bundle inside the bin before the Doctor had even finished taking off his shirt. He met the guard’s eyes and held himself a bit stiffer. Taking a prisoner’s clothes wasn’t unusual, lord knows he had his share of naked escapes but usually he didn’t have an embarrassed Timelord blushing beside him. This was being done just to humiliate them, knock them down a peg before the real punishment began. A universal way to degrade a prisoner.

The Doctor reluctantly finished undressing, trying and failing not to touch Jack in the small cell. Each time he bumped into him he jolted a bit like he was being shocked. He kept his eyes down and his back to Jack and the guard. Jack looked his way and gave him a brief smile taking his clothes and putting them in the bin for him so he didn’t have to face the guard. As the guard removed the bin and left Jack laid his hand on the Doctor’s shoulder. The Timelord jumped as if startled and tried to play it off as a stumble.

“Back to back Doc, let’s sit back to back. The cell is too small to lay down in and if we lean on each other we’ll be able to relax without being in the way of the door. It’ll be the easiest” and most private Jack thought. He may have waited 2000 years to get the Timelord naked but this certainly wasn’t what he had in mind. The Doctor was flush with embarrassment and looked distinctly nervous, almost fearful. Jack didn’t know what was causing it as he was sure the time lord had been in worse spots and the guard wasn’t nearly as intimidating as the hoards of cybermen and other truly terrifying beings he’d faced before. For Jack nakedness was a natural state, not necessarily sexual in and of itself, just a comfortable way to be. Obviously the Doctor felt differently, so he endeavoured to protect his friend’s modesty even if he didn’t share it. They lowered themselves and sat against each other, the Doctor’s cool skin against the Artron heat of his body, and they waited.


	3. Chapter 3

With the transport ship came a gruelling decontamination process. They were hosed off at high pressure and doused with an antibacterial gel that burned the eyes and stung the skin. Instead of having their clothing returned they were issued disposable paper gowns in a cursory nod to modesty. While the ship was designed for humanoid prisoners it was clear that such prisoners were viewed with contempt at best. The Doctor had hoped that he could talk some reason at his sentencing but he hadn’t even been allowed to speak, not that that had stopped him from speaking at great length which was why he was now being separated from Jack and carried bodily out of the judicial hall. 

Jack dug his fingernails into the palms of his hand, every cell in his body wanted to fight his way to the Doctor and shoot his way out of this nightmare. The problem was: he didn’t have shoes, much less a gun and he certainly wasn’t a match for a room full of Judoon mercenaries. He pled guilty to all charges without listening to them being listed. The only sound he could hear was the Doctor’s screams in the next room changing from righteous indignation to fear to pain. He, like the Doctor, was sentenced to 70 years on the colony though he had an earlier opportunity for parole it didn’t matter to him very much. What mattered was staying with the Timelord so he could protect him as much as possible. Seventy years was the blink of an eye when compared to the life he had but he knew the Doctor struggled to stay in one place for a week. Of course, their captors likely thought 70 years was as good as life in prison since they believed them to be human. The Gesteas only lived for around 50 so at the least, it wouldn’t be the current generation’s problem. 

Judoon mercenaries led him toward the room where the Doctor was taken and he bit the inside of his cheek to keep his temper as he watched a rattan cane meet his friends back through the glass of the door. He stood at the door and watched as they unbound the timelord’s hands and dragged him back to the cells which held them. As soon as the Doctor was secure the lock turned green and he too was taken and locked in the cell next to his friend. Blood had seeped through the gown’s material and he laid on the floor face down with his knees tucked to his chest. His breath came in short gasps and he hid his face in his arms.

“I’m not going to ask if you are okay, it is clear you are not. I am going to ask if you think anything is broken” Jack watched his body heave up slightly as he turned to face him.

“I’m sorry Jack, so very, very sorry” The despair in his eyes felt like a knife through Jack’s heart. 

“Hey, don’t do that. You saved the world, it’s what you do. Just looks like we might need to save it again. Don’t be sorry. Seventy years isn’t all that much to people like you and me. It could be worse, it could be a lot worse. We could be headed to the Orion system. It’s barely a prison. They’re going to give us a basic kit and leave us to our own devices. We’ll be fine.” Jack tried to soothe the time lord but he just turned his face back into his arms.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Two days later they found themselves being processed into the Drurn Q7G penal colony in the northern hemisphere processing centre on the smallest of the planet’s three continents. While the Doctor’s back was healing he was becoming more and more reserved. He could feel the Tardis but only faintly and was suffering the loss. He was closing in on himself and that worried Jack more than any physical wound could. As they were processed a DNA sample was taken and a small chip was placed under the skin on the right hand. They were told it would flash green at their release date, yellow for parole hearings and when it flashed they would be required to make their way to one of the 18 processing centres located throughout the planet. They were each given a rucksack and two sets of clothes along with a pair of cheap hiking boots. The clothes were tan and the material similar to denim except for the coats which resembled coarse but thick wool with an oil coating to shed water.

They passed through a door and it was sealed behind them separating them from the staff before another door opened and they could move into a room containing supplies. The tools were primitive by contemporary standards but several steps up from what Jack had used to survive when he first started living on Earth in the mid-nineteenth century. He chose a saw with a laser blade that shut off if your hand passed through and some other woodworking tools. He saw the forests from orbit and knew they would likely be relying on them for most of their needs. He took the raw materials he needed for trapping and fishing but failed to find anything that could be used easily for hunting or self-defence except the most basic pocket knives. They got tarps, rope and a few other odds and ends. He packed it all in one of the large rucksacks that they were provided and used the Doctor’s primarily for food, water and some basic first aid. The food was bare-bones. They received a bag each of grain, beans, sugar and oil as well as a 10 day supply of ration bars. They each had a bedroll they could strap to the top and Jack hoped they would be sufficient to ward off any chill night might bring. Little was left in the supply area when they made their exit. Jack tried to spare the Doctor’s back, but it was too heavy for him to carry on his own and he loathed to leave anything behind as there was no guarantee when or if they would be able to resupply. The guards around the processing centre encouraged them to hike away from the building from behind the barrel of a gun.

They headed west mostly because if they headed east a sun shone right in their eyes. It was brighter than Sol, shining white in the sky and making it painful to glimpse even for a few moments. It was a binary system but the other star was a red sub-dwarf scarcely close enough to count. With less mass and further distance, it wasn’t as luminous as its mate so it was small in the sky and only just bright enough not to be overwhelmed by the light of the other sun. The area was fairly flat and after leaving the mile-wide clearing of the processing centre the trees were tall and thick leaving them only able to see a few meters in any direction. Their boots sank into the thick detritus of the forest floor as they made their way through the brush. About mid-day Jack stopped the Doctor to eat. They sat the packs down and they leaned against them though the Doctor took a bit more care with his leaning than Jack. They split a ration bar and a bottle of water while Jack desperately tried to get the Doctor to engage. 

“How’s your back?”

“It’s all right” The Doctor stared into the bottle of water as if it held all the answers. He was only vaguely paying attention to the Captain. His thoughts instead were working out the probability that they could reach the southern polar ice cap where the Tardis and their other belongings had been impounded.

“What about your feet? It’s hard to hike while breaking in new boots. Are your feet holding up okay?” Jack tried to catch his attention.

“My feet are fine, Jack.” The Doctor frowned as each scenario in his head required equipment they didn’t have. The landmass they were on was not attached so they couldn’t go by land, Flight was out of the question and going by sea would take years of preparation.

Jack sat a little further back into the rucksack.“Seventy years is going to feel pretty damn long if we’re limited to ‘fine’ and ‘all right’, Doc” Jack looked high into the canopy as if the answers to the universe’s mysteries were held in the branches of the trees. “We need some kind of plan here. We aren’t going to get very far with the little bit they gave us. We need to set up a base of operations and start living off the land as soon as we can. To do that, I’m going to need your help. For me to be comfortable accepting your help, I need to know how you are”

“Jack, what do you want me to say? I’ve gotten us stuck in the middle of nowhere with no Tardis and no hope of rescue. My back is killing me but I know we have to keep going because the closer we are to the processing centre the more likely someone is waiting to ambush us and take our supplies. We also need to be near a source of water at the very least but it’s likely that will be an ambush point as well.” The Doctor picked up a rock and threw it at a nearby tree. “Worst of all the area they’ve dropped us is half a world away from the Tardis and there is no way to cross the ocean between it and us. The plant life says this is the humid subtropics of a world originally terraformed for humans or a human crossbreed. It’s sometime during early spring which means in a few months time we’ll be dealing with a monsoon or hurricanes or something equally wet and disastrous. A terraformed planet wouldn't be used as a prison planet unless there was something wrong with it. At least half of the plants I see are Earth descendants but none of them are especially fragile. Something must have happened to the original colony that chose to settle here.”

“Lots of colonies didn’t make it the first time around. It isn’t like you got any support from home. It doesn't help that this system has previous occupants. The Gesteas couldn’t survive on a planet with this much humidity so it is useless to them, they can’t even guard it themselves.”

“That’s true but if a whole ship of colonists with terraforming equipment and dwelling pods failed to survive here we can bet it is going to be difficult for just the two of us using nothing but what we have on our backs. The best thing we can do to prepare for it is to find a suitable place to ride it out away from other people and close to the resources we’ll need to survive.” with that the Doctor stood once more and grabbed his pack. “Which means we need to get going. I can do a triple marathon but I’m betting your limited to the conventional marching pace of most human militaries which if memory serves is roughly 20 miles a day when carrying weight” 

Jack put the water away and loaded up once more following the Doctor east. “I can do that in a day but we won’t be able to maintain that very long. We’re wearing brand new boots and our feet will be telling us all about it tomorrow.” 

“Jack, I want to be a minimum of 60 miles away from the processing centre before we try and get comfortable. My feet won’t blister and yours heal overnight. If we take three days to gain some distance we’ll have six weeks to sort food, water and shelter before it all goes to pot. At that point, we’ll have to make do with whatever we’ve got because we’ll only be able to travel short distances without risking being caught in the storms”

With the conversation closed the two continued their march with few words mostly relating to the topography and hidden hazards.


	4. Chapter 4

## 

In the rapidly diminishing sunlight the two men set about clearing dead branches to settle in for the night. The area they chose had slightly less brush than they’d been dealing with most of the day. They had a magnesium stick and flint but chose not to have a fire. Partly because the surrounding wood was wet and would produce an abundance of smoke and partly because with no moons any light on this planet would attract unwanted attention at night and a fire was not easily hidden.

The ground was moist so they chose to lay out a tarp before unrolling the rustic bedding they’d been provided. They each had a thin foam mat coated with rubber on one side, three blankets: a thin blanket of plant-based fibre, a synthetic fleece of medium thickness and a dense, heavy woollen blanket that was treated to shed water. They’d not been provided with any kind of pillow but as warm as it remained after the heat of the day they chose to cover themselves only with the thin, breathable blanket and use the extras as pillows. They used a second tarp strung between trees as a makeshift tent just large enough to lay side-by-side. For many hours Jack just listened to the sounds of nocturnal life and the Doctor’s breathing. It seemed his friend could fall asleep at will but that sleep was troubled. Jack knew that men such as themselves earned their nightmares and didn’t want to insert himself somewhere he wasn’t wanted so he closed his eyes and let himself drift

He was in the tent again. As soon as he acknowledged the tent he was being dragged out of it and the blows started to fall. If he was being beaten it wasn’t Jack or the Jones family or the world below.

Change

Japan was burning and he was watching but worse he felt their minds going out through the Archangel network, so many connections were lost. He liked the connection. It wasn't quite like the feeling of being connected to the other time lords but he wasn’t alone in his head.

Change

His world is burning and his people are dying. Each life a candle extinguished leaving him alone in the dark. He hated the dark.

Change

“Stay away from the Shadows!” They were dying and the woman knew his name. She could only be his wife. How had he ever managed to get another wife after he lost Rose?

Change

“No, No You can’t” He can’t? He had to. The alternative was death. He changed. It is his nature. Maybe he can cheat this once. Give her this face for the rest of her life if he was careful, he had the hand.

Change

“That’s me when we first met.” That’s the me I can’t be for you but want you to have. He’ll never change. He’ll grow old with you. He’ll give you carpets and a mortgage and Christmas with your Mum. I know he will because I would if I could. I have to deal with Donna.

Change

“No, I can’t go back, don’t make me go back.” “We had the best of times”

Jack’s eyes popped open and he gasped, waking so suddenly it almost felt like a revival. He knew instantly the dreams hadn’t been his own and felt guilty for having seen them. He moved so he was no longer touching the Doctor who was still projecting enough that Jack could have peeked if he tried but instead he bolstered his mental walls and waited for his friend to wake. He had enough nightmares of his own.


	5. Chapter 5

Just prior to dawn the dew point was reached and all of their things contracted a feeling of dampness that stayed with them and chafed until midday. At the apex of the day’s heat, they spread their blankets in branches to allow them to fully dry and prevent mould. Occasionally they would share a ration bar which reminded Jack of an incredibly dense biscuit. So far they’d had Lemon and coconut. They still had apple cinnamon and vanilla to try. The low-protein, high-calorie bars had the benefit of not provoking thirst but they sat heavily in the stomach and didn’t really satisfy. The Doctor’s brooding mood stifled conversation so that what could have been a hike across any new planet became a punishing drudge through the forest that threatened to become a swamp in every low-lying area.

Early morning on the third day the trees changed to something more like cypress and the ground went from moist straight to mud. The ground sucked at their boots right until they found themselves at a muddy lake surrounded by reeds and cattails.

“Well, it may be water but I’d really hate to drink from it, it’s warm and moving so slowly it is likely to be full of insect larva, amoeba, bacteria and sediment.” Jack eyed the pool derisively. 

“No, it certainly isn’t potable. The water is too rich in organic matter. Could be a good source of fish, likely some fat bottom feeders lurking under water that hazy.” The Doctor considered the pool. “Also, we can’t see the bottom so we shouldn’t try and cross it. No telling how deep it is or what hazards we’d encounter.”

“Don’t worry Doc, I didn’t fancy a swim anyway. It looks like the water level is consistent by the trees though so it might be fed by a river that is cleaner upstream”

“That’s likely as it isn't stagnating, just very slow-moving. We should remember this place if we settle nearby. Do you see that grass there? The stuff about as tall as you?” He pointed along the bank where thick paddies of the plant came up from the murky water. “That looks to be wild rice. It isn’t mature yet but I expect it will be ready to harvest in about 4 months. Some places would consider it a delicacy, though just as many are likely to consider it a weed. Still, there is lots of it and it is likely to store better than any other plants we can forage.” 

Jack smiled as it now seemed the Doctor had entered lecture mode and anything was better than brooding silence.

“Civilization is built on grains. Rice, wheat, barley, millet. All were essential to permanent settlement. It’s spring now so we’ll likely be able to forage effectively but even mild winters are a time of lean. Without food we can store, we’ll be forced nomads. I know I’m fairly nomadic with my lifestyle but I prefer the steady food supply of agriculture. The cattails are edible too, you can eat the lower part of the leaves, boil the stems and roast the young flowers. Even the pollen is edible though it won’t be there until mid-summer. It can be used to thicken soups. Some varieties have roots that can be dried and pounded into flour and young shoots are rather like asparagus.”

Jack let the Doctor’s babble wash over him, the sound of his voice made the landscape seem much friendlier as they made their way north around the lake. About a quarter of the way around they found the lake was being fed by a meandering network of creeks that joined into ponds and separated out around obstacles but went generally north in its wandering path though sometimes it made great detours to the east and west. When the tributaries finally joined they found themselves following a sand-bottom river whose water became clearer with each passing mile. 


	6. Chapter 6

“You know Jack, I think these wetlands may be at least partially fed by a spring. There are no snow melts here to feed it and the water is getting colder and clearer and as we near the source, which may be nearby judging by the limestone and sand we’re seeing.”

Just as the sun began to dip down under the horizon they came to a crystal clear pool less than 90 feet wide with a sandy bottom and 20-degree water. The bank was much drier than at the lake, more like a beach than a swamp. On the east side of the pool water flowed from a limestone cave less than a meter wide with less than half its opening above water. 

“I think this is about as clean as we could ask for. Unless the aquifer is contaminated we aren’t going to do better short of finding a tap.” The Doctor said as he looked around the area. “Though this is much too small to be the only source that fed the lake. I bet if we were to explore we would find the lake to be fed by multiple springs in the area or we might find a whole river system. We’re deep into wetlands and there is no telling how much of this area is the same unlivable swamp we trekked through to get here.”

The trees were thinner and more varied around the spring with sweet gum, soft maple, a scattering of oak and even one or two poplar-types. The soil was composed of sand that was darker the further it was from the water and the brush was sparser consisting mostly of short palmettos and brambles that grew first upright than arched downward. As the sandy soil supported fewer large plants some ground cover that looked remarkably like dandelion and purslane could be found in small clumps between the trees.

“This area has good drainage but the whole place is likely to flash-flood if we get any kind of rain” Jack picked up a handful of sand and let it flow through his fist. “Between the water and the bugs, it’s unlikely many people would decide to settle here and that could be good for us considering it is a prison planet, but the sand, clay and muck isn’t gonna make the best foundation”

“Yes, that’s true but people have built-in worse places and done fine. We can put a little house on stilts. They used stilts on earth all the way back to the bronze age.” It would be a far cry from the Tardis or even Jack’s bedsit but it could be a livable solution until they could figure out a way to traverse the ocean. 

Jack frowned “We’ll spend a week just digging holes.”

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, Jack. We won’t start seeing heavy rainfall until late spring to early summer. We can expect the next few weeks to be mild and that should be enough to anchor and build a single-room dwelling. If we build a bit of a platform just off the ground first we can set up the tarps as a tent like we’ve been doing these past few nights without the wet seeping in from below. It’s not much but it will protect us from the elements. The heat is likely to cause us more problems. I can maintain my body temperature at a much greater range than a human. I won’t get heatstroke or anything but I may dehydrate. Helps that I’m not running at a ridiculous 37 degrees, but that’s higher for you isn’t it? What with the artron energy.” the Doctor gestured to Jack absently. 

“Yeah, I’m a furnace. Good at keeping people warm at night, though.” Jack threw on the smile he used as armour and tried to fall into comfortable banter. 

“Can’t see needing that since I doubt it drops below freezing here.” the Doctor replied accepting Jack’s unspoken request to return to the status quo. He could give Jack a measure of peace for now. Laugh with him, make and thwart innuendo. “Average daily highs will be as hot as you are.”

“So you admit I’m hot?” Jack took the bait.

“Didn’t I just say that?” The Doctor grinned as he explored the local flora. The plant life was varied and typical of the subtropics. He wondered if Jack had ever been to Taiwan or the Philippines. If he had then the Doctor could draw parallels for him. “Down-right feverish, no wonder you suffer delusions.”

Jack’s mouth dropped. “Delusions? I wasn’t aware I suffered delusions.”

“Delusions of grandeur” the timelord quipped as he let some sand run through his fingers. The karst topography was intriguing and he wondered if there would be accessible caves inland or would he need to be nearer the coast. He wiped his hand on his trousers and moved into an area with thicker vegetation. 

“There is nothing delusional about my grandeur.” Jack insisted as he preened a bit and followed the Doctor into the brush. “It is well documented across many time zones. I have impeccable references.”

The Doctor let out a snort and then licked the leaf of a plant that he identified as a distant relative of Jackfruit. “No doubt it has been subject to peer review, though the journals one would read about it aren’t exactly scholarly.”

“The results are consistent and reproducible, that’s what counts.” Jack insisted

“Ha! I think I might be able to detect significant bias inherent in the studies.” The Doctor circled a dense knot of what looked like bamboo.

“I’m a FACT remember, Doc? Nothing less biased than hard facts.”

“Oh, I dunno Jack. I’d be willing to wager that hard you is about as biased as it gets.” the Doctor quipped and then blushed at his own innuendo.

“Generally biased in your favour, though.” Jack smiles

The Doctor stopped and stared, mouth open at a huge patch of herbaceous perennials.

“What’s got you so excited?” Jack laughed at his jaw working like a fish.

“That Jack!” He pointed to the layered leaf sheaths that made up the trunks. “Oh, that is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen all day. This settles it. We’re living here.”

“I’m not arguing Doctor, the clean water was enough for me.” He watched the time lord put both hands gently on a huge leathery red flower hanging off a stalk growing from the centre. “But are you going to fill me in?”

“Musa acuminata, the best rhizome in the known universe.” He beamed.

“In English or galactic standard, Doc. The Tardis doesn’t seem to be translating.”

“Bananas”


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning they took down the makeshift tent and laid the tarps to dry before surveying the area for a good site to build. The run from the spring was quite narrow in places leading to its source and since they were going to have to use the river to transport the large logs for the stilts they needed to track downstream where it was deeper. They only had to backtrack about half a mile to find sufficient depth coupled with a gentle bank the logs could be rolled out of once the brush was clear. The water was still clear enough to count the pebbles on the bottom and was deemed safe for the Doctor to drink a few hours after Jack tested it and didn’t die. At the time lord’s first sip he was informed it contained lots of dissolved calcium and magnesium and just the tiniest bit of sulphur followed by a lecture on the benefits and drawbacks of hard water.

Together it was decided that the first order of business would be to construct a raft. Travelling via the river would increase the range they could forage in and it would make moving logs easier. The decision was made to use logs about as thick as Jack’s wrist. They made the raft wide enough and long enough for them to lay side-by-side without touching or feeling like they’d fall off. They used a pocket knife to notch out the cross support poles and the rope to attach everything together. 

“You know, I get the feeling we’re going to need a helluva lot more rope. Right now we can’t have the raft and the tent at the same time and we’re likely to need it for building purposes too.” Jack mused as they pushed the raft from the bank into the water.

“Well, depending on what we find when we harvest the trees for the stilts, today might kill two birds with one stone. Quite often trees like the ones we’ll be cutting have an inner bark that can be broken down into fibres that can be twisted into coarse rope. That’s something we can be doing at night. Neither of us needs as much sleep as we have darkness.”

“I get the feeling we’re going to have plenty of projects to fill that time. We’ve got a tool that will cut mortise and tenon and tongue and groove but we’re going to need to cut pegs and shims for all of them. We are also going to need containers to store things in and we’ll need to build any tools we were not given.”

They cut a pole to move the raft along and set off downstream for the swampy area where they were the previous day. Traveling downstream on the raft they made much better time. They knew the most critical portion would be the foundation and they wanted to give themselves the best chance.

“We want six roughly equal straight piles 20 feet long. The trees that grow directly in the water are more resistant to rot but they may sink and then we’ll have no hope of getting them upstream. So we’ll look for the same type of tree growing where their roots aren’t currently submerged. You are going to want to cut a notch in the direction you want the tree to fall and we want them to land mostly in the water so we can move them.” 

Having travelled together, it was easy for Jack to follow the Doctor’s lead. The work was hard and by the time they’d cut the logs and relocated them onto the bank of the spring Jack was soaked through with both water and sweat and gritty with dirt and sawdust. Even the Doctor glistened slightly with the effort. Not only did they have to fell the trees but they had to remove the branches and cut them into reasonable lengths. Some of the branches would be good for lumber but most would be relegated to firewood once it had sufficiently dried. The greenwood was probably 30% water and the weight all that moisture added was considerable. By the time they managed to roll the last log on to dry land, the smaller sun had set and only an hour or so of daylight remained.

“That’s all I think we’re doing today, Doc. Now I’m going to get cleaned up before you are stuck smelling me all night.” He flashed a lopsided grin as he took what he needed from the rucksack and headed back to the river.

In his absence, the Doctor used the bottled water to see to his own needs. He wasn’t colonized with the body-odour producing bacteria humans have but the grit and sawdust irritated his skin and were best removed. His simple ablutions and a change of clothes left him refreshed enough to prepare their little camp for the 12 hours of darkness they would soon endure. Rather than untie the raft he decided it could pull double duty as the roof of a lean-to using the poles they propelled themselves with as supports. He still put a tarp under it and over the top to protect against the rain but left the sides open to the breeze and unfortunately to the insects as well.


	8. Chapter 8

Downstream of where they collected drinking water the Captain scrubbed his naked skin with sand. It took longer for him to go sour than those in the 21st century where he’d been living but after a day of hard work he needed this. He’d seen to his clothes already and they were hanging off a branch to dry. Most of his body hair had been permanently removed just a couple years into his career as a time agent. Smooth skin was the preferred aesthetic of the 51st century so once he had the credits he chose to simplify his grooming with a few passes of a laser. That meant the only hair he had was on his head, under his arms and a small patch over his pubic bone. He let himself drift in the water as he played with that small patch of hair. 

His thoughts were scattered and he tried to bring them together on the physical. A few lazy strokes and he began to feel the heaviness between his legs. He had a fleeting thought of Ianto but it hurt so he pushed it away. Then his mind turned to the Doctor with his lanky grace and trim muscle. The Doctor who was only a few minutes away but so very out of reach. He moved more rapidly, now at full attention at the thought of that angular jaw wrapped around his cock. It wasn’t a new fantasy, he’d been nursing this one since he’d woken to the kiss of life from Martha Jones. This Doctor had the most fuckable mouth and he was constantly licking things to draw attention to it. Before when the Doctor was big ears and leather he imagined him bending him over the console and slamming into his arse but that just didn’t seem right for the pretty boy in a suit. Jack knew how to bring himself quickly but he purposely drew it out and held himself on the edge. He imagined the Doctor as a skilful lover bringing him off with precision and passion. Nine-hundred years was a lot of time to gather experiences after all. 

Eventually, he found his release in the water, he mused momentarily that he’d better get used to taking care of himself as a prison planet didn’t rank high on places he’d like to find someone for a quick shag. He spent the last of the sunlight air-drying before donning his trousers and making his way back to the camp. He tried to leave off his shirt to enjoy the breeze of the early evening but it seemed to be the favourite time of day for the insects to feed. He eventually decided it was better to be hot than end up covered in mosquito welts and dressed fully. Back at the camp, he found the Doctor with several small piles of leaves which he was examining by the light of a small fire. 

“Is that dinner?” Jack asked, not sure to be hopeful or distressed if it was.

“Some of it could be, not exceptionally tasty as is but entirely edible.” The Doctor pointed to the pile furthest away from the fire “You wouldn’t want to eat these, they’ve got antimicrobial properties that would disrupt your gut flora. Could be useful for cleaning though. Boil the leaves and strain the liquid and you’ve got a mild disinfectant. These three,” The Doctor indicated the next in line. “Are sometimes used as seasonings. They can be eaten as greens but the flavour is really strong so that is best avoided. This one tastes of onions, this one is a bit spicy and this one is kind of a cross between basil and garlic. The next two are often used for herbal teas in this sector and this last one is catmint.”

“Looking for a pet?” Jack grinned 

“No I’m not out to intoxicate the wildlife. I got it for you.”

“As much as I’d like it to, I don’t think it would have the same effect” 

The Doctor let out a long-suffering sigh. “Prepared properly it will repel insects, nepetalactone oil is ten times more effective than DEET at warding off mosquitoes and can also repel cockroaches, termites, beetles and weevils. It isn’t difficult to prepare either, we just fill a jar with crushed leaves and steep them in oil.”

“In that case, don’t let me stop you.” Jack threw up his hands and backed off allowing him to continue his work. Jack busied himself with stripping bark off the older fallen branches they’d harvested during the day and separating the dried out part from the fibrous inner layers. He broke them down into thin strips and sat down across from his friend to twist then into cordage. The process was simple and didn’t require him to see what he was doing and it was easy to get lost in the repetition and the steady chatter of the Doctor. 

The Doctor babbled about the evolution of the plants they were using and the life cycles of the animals they attracted. He speculated on the types of scavengers they could expect to draw and how they could exploit them as resources to sustain themselves. He rambled about the natives on Swoth who lived in similar circumstances who developed webbed feet to deal with the mucky ground and were amphibious. Jack just let him talk until he found himself lulled into dozing deep into the night after the fire had been allowed to burn down to embers. He fell asleep with his chin on his chest and his back to a log and a length of rope in his hands. 

The Doctor continued to speak for many minutes after his companion’s eyes had shut than listened intently for several more after he stopped. When he was positive Jack was asleep he laid himself down to do the same. It had unnerved him that Jack had returned from the river smelling of sex and he wasn’t sure he could have found sleep with Jack as close as he’d been the past few nights. It wasn’t unusual for Jack to smell that way but it reminded him that Jack had the needs of a fifty-first-century human. When Jack had travelled with him it was easy enough to set him loose on a planet for a few hours and ignore the issue but here they would be sharing an enclosed space for months at a time. He hoped the Tardis was close enough for her telepathic link to prevent him from having needs. He could still feel her, if only faintly. He couldn’t think of anything more embarrassing than losing control of that bit of himself. Only exhaustion allowed him to sleep with his troubled thoughts.


	9. Chapter 9

Jack woke in the small hours of the morning before dawn. He was stiff and uncomfortable from sleeping against the log and covered in a thin layer of dew. It took him a moment to orient himself in the darkness. He could hear whimpering nearby in the shelter and assumed the Doctor was once more in the throes of a nightmare. He crawled towards him carefully wary of obstacles in the darkness. When his hands found his friend his worry immediately escalated. The Doctor was hot, comparatively speaking, and sweating more than he had while exerting himself in the sun yesterday. In a fit of anxiety, he shook the Doctor. He was rewarded for his efforts with the timelord rolling away from him and mumbling something that wasn’t English and certainly didn’t sound nice.

“Come on Doc, let me hear the sultry sound of your voice. I need to know you’re okay.” Jack pleaded.

The Doctor blinked into the darkness and grudgingly gave way to consciousness. He groaned at his body’s stiffness and the burning pain of the wounds on his back. 

“Are you feeling okay, Doc?” Jack was second-guessing his impulse to wake the Doctor.

“I’m feeling annoyed. Are you having your revenge for me coming to get you at two in the morning? Normally I’d not mind but I think my back has picked up an infection.” He gingerly prodded the lashes he could reach and found them warm and oozing. He brought his finger to his mouth to taste the extrudate and pulled a face. “Yeah, that isn’t healthy at all. No matter though, if it gets too serious I’ll go into a healing coma.” He patted Jack on the shoulder.

“Do you need to go back to sleep? Is there anything we can do to make you better?” Jack frowned “We haven’t got any antibiotics or anything, would washing it with that plant you were talking about yesterday help?”

“I’m awake now and no, we wouldn’t want to put that in an open wound. It would kill healthy cells as readily as bacteria and they’d necrotize in the wound. It will either get better in the next few days or it will get worse and I’ll go into a healing coma.”

“You keep saying that like it’s a good thing, Doc. Why the hell would we want you to go into a coma?” 

“It is a good thing if I need to do it. Much less dramatic than regeneration and completely unlike a coma in a human. If the infection becomes systemic rather than localized my body will shut down unnecessary functions and concentrate energy into healing. I’d wake up good as new. It might be preferable to healing the long way.” The Doctor sat up and fished out a ration bar to split for breakfast and handed Jack half.

“Thanks, If it is all the same to you, I’d prefer you to stay conscious. You know these are going to run out fast.” Jack gestured to the bar in his hand “We should have set up traps yesterday. We should do that before we start working on the holes for the stilts. Seeing as this is a terraformed planet rather than one that naturally evolved we’re pretty much guaranteed well-rounded small-mammal population so we might get some variety. We should set snares close enough to check every day but far enough they don’t draw any predators here to us.”

The Timelord nodded then added “We might consider making some basket traps for fish too. Not as entertaining as fishing but you don’t have to eat your catch immediately. I used to fish a long time ago, really had a taste for Gumblejacks. Tastiest fish in the mutter’s spiral. I had a Whifferdill companion who caused a bit of a problem with them, made the Tardis angry. What she expected from a penguin I’ll never know.” The doctor shook his head at the memory and wondered momentarily about the conman from his sixth life before turning his attention back to the conman from this one.

Jack, true to form, didn’t bat an eye at the Doctor’s digression. They discussed the day’s plan until the sun came up and then set to work. By the end of the day, they’d set traps and sunk two of the six stilts they would build on. Overnight Jack worked on fish traps using reeds and the rope from tree bark. The Doctor went to bed early in the evening. He didn’t complain about his back but Jack could tell it was taking a lot out of him. This time despite his concerns he let the Doctor sleep until he woke on his own.


	10. Chapter 10

In the early morning light, the two men split up to obtain breakfast. Jack checked the traps and found they caught a marsupial the size of a house cat that looked like a big angry rat with a prehensile tail. The Doctor foraged finding a couple of blooming cardoons which were the next best thing to artichokes once you cut the spines off, some purple kiwi vines and even a few eggs slightly larger than a quail’s. Jack took care of field dressing the catch and used the offal to bait the other traps. The Doctor prepared his finds and strips of meat wrapping them in banana leaves before nestling them in the coals of the fire.

The meal was filling even if the flavours didn’t really pair well. Despite the Doctor’s assurances to the contrary, Jack could see his friend was feeling poorly. He picked at his food and his eyes were rimmed with deep shadows. He wished he could give him the time he needed to recuperate but they urgently needed a better shelter if they were to survive the coming months. Instead, they worked to install the foundation for their new home. First, they dug a hole deeper than the layer of sand that passed for topsoil down to the clay beneath. Then with their homemade ropes and a great deal of manhandling they raised the pole upright in the hole. The poles were held upright by ropes with stakes until the men could backfill the dirt around them, pouring water around them to compact the soil. Deep in the muck, the piles stood firm and once sunk could not be moved easily. Though Jack had complained it would be a week to set the foundation they managed it in four days. The Doctor smiled as he pushed on the last of them and found it stable than dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, finally succumbing to the long-overdue healing coma.

“Well, I guess you’ll rest now” Jack snarked. “Guess I get to work on the rest of it by myself.” He lifted the Doctor in his arms and took him back to the lean-to. “You’re heavier than you look, maybe next time you’ll rest and get better without passing out on me.” Jack arranged him under the shelter and covered him loosely with the lightest blanket. “You did good Doc” He moved a stray hair from the other man’s brow. “I’ll carry us the rest of the way from here.”

And carry him he did. The next day before Jack set out to work on their new home’s floor he made a litter to take the Doctor with him. Just because they hadn’t seen any large predators didn’t mean they weren’t there. He couldn’t leave his friend helpless and alone. He had managed to complete the part that Jack couldn’t do on his own before succumbing to his injuries, now Jack would have to divide his time between building and playing nurse. 

The priority today was the sub-floor. Once that was done they could live under it until the hut was completed. The stilts would sit one on each corner and two in the centre with two yards between each one. He built a frame between them that the planks would rest on to make a floor and then stopped for lunch.

It wasn’t until he sat down beside the Doctor that he realised his mistake. He’d been worried about large predators when he should have paid more attention to the small ones. To Jack’s horror, while he’d been less than 10 steps away the Doctor’s body had been under a silent attack. It should have occurred to him that with his open infected wounds that the insects would treat a comatose body the same as they would treat a corpse. 

“Oh gods, Oh no” Jack pulled off the Doctor’s shirt and trousers in a mad rush to protect him. Scooping him into his arms he rushed him to the water’s edge. The ants stung Jack’s hands as he desperately washed them away. Beetles were crushed underfoot as he knocked them loose and the flys scattered as he swatted at them. Jack turned him on his side inspecting his back. “They made a meal out of you Doc, you’re missing some bits back here. I’m gonna need to wrap these up but don’t worry, I don’t need a blanket when it’s so fucking hot anyway” Jack laid the Doctor’s head on his thigh and cupped water in his hands washing the wounds and checking for lingering insects. 

“Oi, out of his nose you bastards. He’s not dead, you can’t have him.” Leaving the infested clothes and the litter at the build-site Jack carried his friend back to the Lean-to. They’d been careful to keep food away from where they slept but he still checked the blanket before he put the Doctor down. He changed the man out of his wet pants then tore strips off the light blanket to wrap his friend’s wounds. Having been slept on for a week it was hardly sterile but the tight straps around his chest and over his shoulders would deter the worst of the insects. 

“Looks like you’re gonna be laid up in just pants and a vest for awhile Doc, I promise to be a gentleman.” Jack cleared the area around the Doctor than he surrounded the lean-to with a ring of ash, knowing most insects would avoid traces of fire. In that same vein, he built a large, smokey fire full of green branches to drive away anything that could fly. He rubbed the catmint oil on his friend’s exposed skin hoping it would work like the Doctor said it would.

“Now don’t think I’m trying to avoid work or anything Doc, but I’m gonna stay here with you and make rope the rest of the day. Maybe I can rig something off the ground where you can rest without attracting all that unwanted attention.” 

Jack smoothed his hand over the other man’s leg watching the red welts rise on pale skin. It was a runner’s leg, lean and toned. His own was more defined, having been built up with weight training before immortality had taken the effort out of looking good. Now, no matter what he ate or what he did for exercise he got a magic reset to the peak physical condition he was in on the Gamestation. Even two-thousand years under the tightly packed Cardiff soil couldn’t take away his physique. He could look great and starve to death at the same time. His friend wasn’t so lucky, his body was showing the toll of this ‘adventure'. A too-narrow waist and prominent rib cage, pale skin marred by bruising and now the angry red marks of insects Jack had failed to protect him from.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From now on I'm going to try and update here the same time as I update the beta page but 5 chapters behind. So chapter 15 here is chapter 20 on there and everyone can get an update message simply by following here

When he started it, Jack didn’t think a hammock was that ambitious as far as projects went. Turns out the job requires more skill than he possessed. What he ended up with was more like a very large fishing net. It needed four supports rather than two so he fastened it under the left half of the stilt hut while he worked on the right side. He also lined it with both of the thickest blankets to protect against rope burn. With the Doctor safely stowed and close enough to check on every few minutes he was able to lay the floor and erect the frame. With that done he moved the Doctor under the finished floor, out of the sun, as protected as Jack could get him.

Lacking fasteners everything went together like a puzzle. The tools they were given could make dovetail joints, mortise and tenon, tongue and groove and a variety of other precision cuts. In theory, the whole thing should have come together like a finely crafted chest. The reality, however, was that they were using greenwood. As it dried it would warp and the joints would loosen and the boards themselves might even split. So in addition to shims and pegs, he used rope to reinforce everything. Eventually, he planned on making charcoal for pine tar and sealing all the cracks with oakum but for right now he settled for what he had.

Over the week and a half, he erected all four walls with a shuttered window in each to take advantage of the breeze before the rain started. He was working out how to thatch a roof with palm fronds when his charge attempted to jump up going from a coma to alert in seconds. A loud thunk and “OW” brought Jack down from the roof to watch the Doctor fight with the net. 

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Jack grinned at his friend who had managed to twist himself in the net. “Need a hand?” He started to help the Doctor disentangle himself from the net. “You know, you were supposed to wake gradually so that I could be down here helping you before you went and tangled yourself up. I had you in here neatly.”

“Didn’t mean to make the place look untidy.” the Doctor offered dryly. “If you’ll just unhook that corner there I think it’ll just…”

Jack released the net as he was told and the Doctor came tumbling out, though he landed with a thud he rebounded to his feet almost instantly. 

“There, that’s better, though I seem to be a tad underdressed.” The Doctor appraised his current ensemble of pants and vest with disdain.

“Yeah, well I learned you can get into trouble even when you are unconscious. The local fauna developed a taste for timelord or maybe just a taste for anything that holds still.” Jack made his way to a second, smaller net situated on the side opposite the Doctor’s which held their belongings. “Besides, I rather enjoy the view and it’s the least you can do after leaving me to do all the heavy lifting for the last 10 days.” In spite of his teasing Jack retrieved and presented the Doctor with his clothes.

“You seem to have done admirably well in my absence.” The Doctor said as he began to layer on clothes in spite of the heat. 

“Yeah, not half-bad, is it?” Jack took a step back to look at his work. “We need to work out the roof and we’ll have a dry place to lay our heads. I’ve got no idea how we’ll do any kind of cooking in it. We don’t have enough rock around here for a fireplace and that would be too heavy anyhow.”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you that bit? I thought I did with the Banana plants. They aren't just good for eating. The stems can be cut in half and they are great insulation. You frame out a box in the centre of the hut, cover the bottom in the split ‘trunks’ of the banana tree and cover the whole bit with sand. After that, you can just make a campfire on top.” The Doctor grinned at his own cleverness. “Common practice in Vietnam and Mesocarthonia as well as a few other places.”

With the two of them working together they had a passable shelter in another week. The walls were not insulated and they would need to find a way to do that before winter but it served their needs for the time being. They structured the roof so that it would vent smoke out the overhang without letting water in. It would leave more smoke inside than a chimney but it couldn’t be helped with the materials they had. They moved all of their meagre possessions inside and rearranged the traps to better suit their new location including some basket traps for fish that would no doubt become their primary food source during the rains. They managed dry some of the meat and fruit they gathered for later use. The Doctor encouraged Jack to fill the space beneath the hut with stacked lumber, some of which they pre-chopped into firewood and some they left as whole logs. 

“The rain will make everything miserable and we’ll be confined indoors most of the day so best do as much work as possible now.” he said, “The last thing we want to do is end up traipsing around in the rain trying to do this.”

Two weeks later the sky opened up.


	12. Chapter 12

Just as he predicted, life ground to a halt when the rain started. They might get six dry hours in a day. Enough to check the traps refresh the water bottles before the sky opened up again. The sun never came out long enough to dry anything, just long enough to make it humid and miserable. With so much moisture in the air, sweat doesn't work it just gathers on the skin in an unrelenting dampness that attracts grit and irritates the skin. Even when it is pouring out the air inside the hut is warm. The heat has made Jack lose all pretence of modesty. He never wears a shirt and dons trousers only when he goes outside. The Doctor could taste the 51st-century pheromones in the air and knew the constant exposure was beginning to affect him.

As reluctant as he was to admit his predicament he knew Jack needed to know, so before he lost his ability to reason he sat Jack down.

“Jack, you’ll find out shortly that I’m ill-suited to life outside the Tardis. Without her influence and some specific medications my biology will destabilize, I’m already starting to feel it.” 

Jack inhaled at the grim news. “What do you mean destabilize? Is it life-threatening? Is there anything we can do to stop it, slow it or prepare for it?” 

“It won’t kill me but I’ll be incapacitated for five to seven days out of each six-week period. I will likely need to be restrained during that time for my own safety and my judgement will be impaired. The only way I know of stopping it requires regular injections of stabilizing hormones and the telepathic assistance of my Tardis. There was a pill available when I had access to my home planet but that isn’t going to do us any good now.

“Is that normal for timelords? Was your whole planet non-functional for a week of every six, because that’s one hell of a handicap? I mean, How did Timelords manage to get anything done?” Jack asked.

“Easy, genetic engineering. Most time lords were a product of looming. You pick the traits you want and leave those you don’t. They selected against the trait. I am probably the only one in my cohort that was born naturally and therefore flawed.” The Doctor frowned and talked a bit faster.

“So evolution just stuck you with this useless week and you got the shit end of the stick and were born with it when none of your peers had to deal with it?”

“I suppose that’s accurate if crude. Though I might argue ‘useless’ as it served a purpose prior to looming.”

“And what purpose is that?”

“Reproduction.” the Doctor muttered.

“Reproduction?” Jack stopped and stared.

“Yes Jack, the process by which you get more timelords?” The Doctor turned to scowl at him.

Jack shook himself and took a deep breath before trying to continue the conversation a bit more delicately. “I was under the impression that timelord men functioned much the same as pre-43rd century human males.”

“And where exactly did you get that impression because I’ve certainly never told you.” The Doctor snarked.

“The Valiant” Jack said wryly.

The Doctor cast Jack a sorrowful look. “I didn’t know…”

Jack held up his hands “It’s alright, I’m glad you didn’t. You had enough on your plate but what I saw doesn't match what you’re saying and I didn’t see you lose it every six weeks then either.”

The Doctor ran his hand through his hair. “It’s different. Timelord gender isn’t exactly binary. What you consider to be male and female can change between regenerations but our presentation never does. The Master is...was...an Alpha. He would have had some physical differences but you don’t have the pheromones to trigger them. 51st-century human pheromones are nearly the same as an Alpha timelord. He would impart one of the three strands of DNA. I’m an Omega, I carry two. In season I’ll release pheromones that would entice and heighten an Alpha’s instinctive behaviours. I would also be the vessel for gestation in a coupling with an Alpha. There is a third designation of betas who can release both genetic packages but no way of choosing which they release rendering them largely sterile on their own. I didn’t go into season aboard the Valiant because I was aged beyond the relevance of those cycles. Perfectly loomed children don’t present as Omegas so the Master would have no reason to believe I am one. I don’t know if I would have drawn his attention less if he was trying to breed me rather than break me but it is almost assured he would have succeeded before the year’s end, probably on both counts.”

Jack shuddered, he knew what the Master had done to try and break him and it broke his heart to think his friend suffered the same. “We’ll count our blessings where we can get them. You said you go into season. What does that mean?”

“It means I have a period of greatly increased fertility combined with a reduction of inhibitions, diminished capacity to reason and a strong desire to engage in reproductive behaviours.”

“You mean sex.”

The Doctor nodded but turned away from Jack. “That’s quite enough of the Gallifreyan birds and bees. As far as my inconvenient week coming up, I’ve given it some thought and you should probably just tie me up and ignore me until it is over.” The time lord nodded to himself as he poked through his pack.

“Why exactly do I need to tie you up and how am I supposed to ignore you for a week if your tied up and I have to take care of you?” Jack frowned.

“Jack, I’ll be incapable of saying ‘no.’ Not just to you but to anyone who came to call. I’d likely be rather insistent that the answer was ‘yes’ by the third day regardless of my feelings on the matter when of sound mind.”

“Prior to the invention of the medication that suppresses the cycles, omegas were routinely confined to prevent undesired joinings. Not only would an omega not be able to say ‘no’ but an alpha wouldn’t accept ‘no’ even if they could say it. When faced with omega in heat, the outcome was inevitable. Often alphas would be driven to the point of violence should they be denied or should two alphas be interested in the same omega. Once an omega is claimed they are fairly stuck with whoever did the claiming as there is a telepathic component to it in addition to the physical act...” 

“Claim? You aren't luggage, Doctor.” Jack frowned as he imagined the Master ‘claiming’ his friend. “Taking not only someone’s body but also their mind when they can’t decline? I got a word for that but it isn’t ‘claim’.” Jack began to aggressively make breakfast, imagining the Master’s face on the roots he was pulverising. “How big is that danger? It isn’t like there are other time lords here serving time?”

“Anyone who isn’t mind-blind could theoretically complete the link. The stronger the telepath the more control they could exert over me. The results could be anything from a simple desire for that person’s company to complete subservience.” The Doctor said seriously “Now imagine a telepathic criminal with everything I know at their disposal.”

Jack shuddered. “All the different ways you’ve kept the world from ending could be turned right around to destroy it.” 

“We’re not talking one world, Jack. The consequences are astronomical and I will be  _ actively seeking that connection _ . That’s why they don’t loom omegas and those born were taught to hide it as soon as they presented. With the advent of looming such base behaviours were unnecessary and served nothing but to cause strife. A good time lord is beholden only to himself” the Doctor said sadly as he picked at a coil of homemade rope “I’m just not a very good time lord.”

“Well Doc, I can say unequivocally, you’re the best I’ve met” 

“Small sample size.” The doctor stared at his feet a moment.

“Right, well now you know why, that leaves the how and thankfully biology does make that bit easier.” The Doctor stated with false enthusiasm “Anything non-essential to the cycle is basically dormant. Digestion stops and I run on my reserves, so, nothing in nothing out. I can still dehydrate if I’m sweating which is likely. Not because of the temperature, it’s just a side effect. A few swallows of water a day should be enough though to see me through.


	13. Chapter 13

It wasn’t even two days later that the doctor began to succumb to his nature. In the wee hours of the morning, he woke Jack and presented him with rope. The Doctor’s breathing was ragged as he knelt before Jack, his hands clasped behind him and his head down. His body was just starting to tingle with the desire that would become his only focus all too soon. His instinct was telling him to put his shoulders to the floor and spread his thighs so he squeezed his legs together and tried to ignore the moisture seeping from his hole. Jack gently bent his arms crossing them behind his back and tying them at the wrists so that he grasped his forearms. He took the tail of the rope over the timelord’s right shoulder, across his chest and under his left armpit and back through the cuff than repeated it for the left. He passed the rope through the cuff again, around the upper arm, across his chest below his nipples than reversed the tension and followed the same path backwards back to his hands, wrapped the rope around the centre line than split the rope and cinched it over both arms. 

Confident that the tension from any struggling would be distributed throughout the Doctor’s torso he checked the slack. The Doctor wouldn’t be able to loosen or tighten the knots but Jack could release just his hands if necessary without undoing the whole rig. He gently guided the Doctor to lay flat, knowing he couldn’t reasonably spend a week on his knees and used the second length of rope on his legs. He tied him at the thigh, knee and ankle before turning him on his side and placing his spare clothes rolled up under his head as a pillow. He brushed a piece of hair behind the Doctor’s ear and surveyed his work.

“Do you feel secure?” Jack tried to look in the timelord’s eyes but he avoided Jack’s gaze.

“Not exactly a conventional method of restraint but it certainly does the job. I don’t think I can free myself. You seem well-practised.” The Doctor said a little coldly.

“Being hogtied isn’t exactly comfortable. Tying you up like this I know nothing will dislocate and you’ll keep circulation. That’s important if I’m going to have to keep you like this for five to seven days. I know you said your digestion will slow and you won’t need to eat but this kind of bondage also lets me set you up on your knees so you can drink. It isn’t like I’ve got a supply of straws handy.” Jack defended his methods even if he learned them for sex “This certainly isn’t the first time I’ve done it. Which means I know what to look out for as far as problems go and when it’s time to release you I’ll be able to do it in less than a quarter of the time it took to tie you up in the first place.” 

The Doctor sighed, trying to ground himself. ‘Sorry Jack, you did a good job. Nothing hurts and I’m as comfortable as I can be given the circumstances.” He tried to look contrite “This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I mean it when I say I won’t have any control, it’s already slipping. I’ll say things I shouldn’t and ask for things I normally wouldn't. I know I’m asking a lot from you, and for that I’m sorry.”

Jack took a deep breath. “It’s alright Doc, you just try and go to sleep. I’ll watch out for you.’ 


	14. Chapter 14

Jack didn’t remember falling asleep but when he woke he swore he could smell coffee. His mouth watered at the thought as he opened his eyes. He sat up and began to worry a bit, coffee could mean other people and the last thing he wanted to do on a prison planet was to start socializing with the locals especially since the doctor was currently incapacitated. He supposed he could put the Doctor over his shoulder and leg it if the need really arose but that would mean abandoning all of their supplies.

Oddly enough when he left the shelter the smell seemed further away so he breathed deeply and tried to catch it again. It was strange but the smell made him think of not just coffee but Ianto’s coffee. Ianto’s coffee first thing in the morning after spending the night at his flat. When he returned to the hut and scent got stronger. He went to check the Doctor and found that he was awake but trembling slightly and sweating beneath the thin blanket. He pulled the blanket off him and folded it up, not wanting his friend to overheat and then he knelt so he was face to face with his friend.

“Good morning, you’re looking a little worse for wear. Is there anything I can do to help?” Jack asked.

“It’s so hot Jack. I don’t think I can stand it.” the Doctor writhed in his bonds.

Jack wet a flannel with one of the water bottles and mopped his brow and the Doctor pushed his face into his touch. Jack cleaned his face and laid the cloth on the back of his neck hoping it would cool him. “I’m going to help you sit and then I’m going to massage your arms and legs. The rope shouldn’t be cutting off your circulation but your muscles will get stiff from staying in one position for so long if we don’t.”

The Doctor nodded and closed his eyes trying to centre himself. Jack moved him to where he was reclining against one of the rucksacks and began squeezing and rubbing his arms starting at the shoulders. The timelord allowed Jack to manhandle him into the correct positions his only movement directed by the push-pull of Jack’s hands. When Jack got down to his thighs he started to whimper and Jack stilled “Am I hurting you?” 

“No, far from it. Don’t stop” the Doctor strained against the ropes a bit willing Jack to move.

“Maybe I should stop for now. I don’t want to make this worse than it has to be” Jack moved his hands away slowly but the Doctor thrust towards them.

“No Jack it isn’t worse, it's better. Please don’t stop touching me” The Doctor moaned at the loss of Jack’s hands and the sound went straight to Jack’s groin. The smell of coffee grew stronger and Jack leaned in towards the Doctor and realized he was the source and that beneath the scent of roasted arabica and sugar was a subtle musk. 

“As much as I want to Doc, you aren’t yourself. I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of but this is a line I haven’t crossed and I intend to keep it that way.” Jack retrieved the cloth and began wiping the doctor’s face again. He was starting to sweat himself and he knew it had nothing to do with the temperature.

“I was wrong Jack, I can’t do this. I need your help.” the desperation in his voice was palpable.

“I am helping you Doc, I’m helping you exactly the way you asked me to.” Jack backed away.

“Don’t leave me! Please Jack, I’ll make it good. I’ll make it nice for you.” the Doctor’s voice was now laced with the unmistakable sound of panic so Jack went to him and pulled him into his arms.

“I won’t leave you. I can’t make it better but I won’t leave you.”

It continued like that for three days. Every few hours Jack would rub his stiff limbs and the Doctor would beg him for release. Sometimes the Doctor smelled of Ianto’s coffee, sometimes Estelle’s perfume, once he even caught the scent of the real Jack Harkness’ aftershave but it was always the smell of a lover and it was slowly wearing the Captain down. Every time he was near the Doctor he was hard now. He had thought 51st-century pheromones were something to write home about but they didn’t hold a candle to what was coming off the Doctor. Worse yet, the timelord was broadcasting his desire telepathically. All semblance of reason had left his friend and he wasn’t sure he was too far behind. 

He was sure he had entered his own private hell when he woke on the fourth night to the Doctor thrusting into his thigh.

“Please Jack, please let me have just this little bit. I can’t stand it anymore, it hurts. I need you.” The Doctor begged. Jack wasn’t sure how he made it so close in his restraints but here he was, pressed against the immortal, writhing ineffectually against him, his eyes tightly shut despite the tears managing to escape from their corners.

“Don’t you want me, Jack? I thought you wanted me. Are you angry at me? I’m sorry I left you, please help me.” Jack tried to remain quiet and still even as he weathered the barrage of want the Doctor was throwing at his mental shields “I only need a little bit, less if you talk to me. Can I have that? Just words, that won’t break your promise, Jack. Just talk to me.”

Something inside Jack broke and he turned toward the Doctor and pulled his bound body close letting the desperate man gain the friction he needed to chase his release, he wouldn’t take his mind but he could soothe his body. 

Jack brought his mouth to the Doctor’s ear and whispered though there was no one else to hear.

“Next time you’re like this I’m going to fuck you until you can’t walk, would you like that?’

“Yeah...” the timelord quickened his pace throwing his head back in pleasure as Jack held them hip to hip.

“I’m going to ride you harder than anyone has in your long life and make you come so much you won’t be able to breathe, all you’ve got to do is tell me I can.”

“Yes!” The Doctor shouted his thrusts losing rhythm as he moved desperately against Jack.

“Are you going to tell me I can Doctor? Are you going to let me fill your ass with my cock and make you come?”

“Oh yes, yes Jack. Yes, yes, yes yes…” the Doctor dissolved into a chant and Jack could tell he was almost there. He placed his hands on the Doctors ass and pulled him in so he had the contact he needed.

“Good, Now come for me, Doctor” Jack sent a brief pulse of emotion reinforcing the command without fully connecting to the other man’s mind. The Doctor thrust one last time and then obeyed, spilling himself into his pants and passing out.

Jack took a moment to ensure the time lord was all right before releasing his own cock from his trousers and taking himself in hand. He pumped furiously bringing himself to the edge as quickly as he could. He came in thick spurts before collapsing back, exhausted and ashamed of himself. He panted for a few minutes then forced himself back up. He used the flannel to clean himself as much as he could and tucked himself back in. He left the Doctor as he was, hoping he’d sleep the rest of the night. Tomorrow he would have to attempt a bed bath if he was going to have any hope of keeping the Doctor comfortable. He dropped a kiss to the other man’s forehead.

“I hope you don’t hate me in the morning.”


	15. Chapter 15

When Jack woke after a few hours of sleep on the fifth morning the Doctor was still asleep. As carefully as possible Jack unbound his legs and began to remove the soiled clothing. The Doctor woke just as Jack began to peel his trousers down over his hips. He looked at Jack with equal parts of terror and desire and asked 

“Are you going to claim me now Jack?”

“No Doc, no claiming. If I ever take you I want it willingly given. I shouldn’t have done what I did last night.” The immortal worked his trousers off and put them to the side. He used both hands to lift the elastic of the timelord’s pants over his burgeoning erection trying to keep the stimulation to a minimum. 

The Doctor lifted his hips and allowed Jack to swiftly remove the soiled garment. “If you aren't claiming me why are you undressing me?” he asked.

“Well, judging by the coherency of this conversation, we’re nearing the end of your cycle. I want you clean and fresh and as soon as I can leave you, I’ll take these downstream and wash them for you.” Jack took a damp cloth and began wiping away the sweat, dried semen and lubricating fluids from the Doctor’s body. The Doctor hissed and made a little involuntary thrust into Jack’s hand when he cleaned his cock but didn’t beg or attempt any further contact so Jack left his legs unbound after he redressed the timelord. When he made to undo the ropes on the top half of his body he received a small shake of the head.

“Not yet, I’m better but still not in control. If you undo me now you will likely to be subject to some more unseemly behaviour.” Jack put his hands on the Doctor’s shoulders and looked him right in the eye.

“I don’t give a good goddamn about your behaviour being ‘unseemly.’ If it makes it easier for you to deal with this if I get you off, I’ll do it with no questions asked and we don’t have to talk about it except one nice, fully lucid conversation where you tell me you want it.” The Doctor turned his head but Jack followed to keep looking at him. “This isn’t about me getting in your pants either. I can give you relief and take nothing from you. I can always take care of myself later. I don’t want to take advantage of you but there isn’t any good reason you need to suffer. You don’t need to be embarrassed, it’s just biology and it’d actually make it easier to care for you, not harder.

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer but Jack cut him off.

“Don’t answer now, I can’t believe anything you say when you are like this and I’m not sure I can fully trust what I’d agree to either. I didn’t expect the effects to be that strong. I thought 51st-century pheromones were something special but damn Doc, you smell like everything I’ve ever wanted. If you don’t want that kind of help, next time I might have to leave you by yourself. I hate for you to suffer alone but my resolve has broken once and I can’t guarantee it won’t again.” Jack looked more guilty than the time lord had ever seen him. “If I hurt you like that I’d spend the rest of eternity trying to find a way to stay dead.”

The Doctor closed his eyes and nodded his acknowledgement, not trusting himself to speak on the matter with the current hormones swimming in his blood. He hadn’t been sure if the captain would be able to claim him but last night he’d ordered him to come and nothing in his long life had felt as good or as right as obeying him. The Captain was biologically capable of being his alpha and in the fading grip of his heat, he wanted nothing less. Jack had offered to provide him relief without claiming him and that was a thin line to walk. He could think of nothing worse than to be used and unclaimed.

While he’d been raised to resist the feelings that came with being an omega, they never went away. He’d had sex before and it always left him feeling despondent, dirty and unloved. He instinctively sought that connection during sex and when it didn’t happen, he felt rejected no matter how his partner actually felt about him. None of them had known he was an omega so he couldn’t fault them for it, it was just one of those things. 

All his life sex had made him feel bad so he’d avoided it. He pretended not to notice when people found him attractive, he’d deflect when someone flirted and he’d redirect when someone paid him too much of that kind of attention. It was a large part of why he’d left Rose with the metacrisis. He loved her but it would never be what she wanted and would always leave him feeling empty. 

Maybe it was just because for the first time he was feeling the full effect of a heat without any chemical damping or telepathic cushioning, but the thought of Jack claiming him properly was equal parts thrilling and terrifying. He knew Jack wouldn’t form a knot, he was human after all but that could be changed with a quick trip to the 57th century where genetic modification was common practice.

Part of the reason human had spread so far throughout the universe was their willingness to adapt themselves for relationships with other species. Humans were naturally fertile with most of the universe and took only slight tweaking for most of the rest. Humans would eventually go on to mate even with the trees on their home planet which didn’t develop sentience for billions of years after they were exploring space.

Jack would probably undergo something like that for him he thought. He’d never been knotted before, never even let someone penetrate him but the thought of Jack doing so made moisture seep into his freshly changed clothes. He turned himself face down and canted his hips seeking friction and only then did he hear a strangled noise from Jack. He tried to still his movements and be properly ashamed but the knowledge that Jack could, at any moment make the choice to take him, made him move faster. A hand touched his back for a brief moment and he cried out expecting it to continue downward but instead it left him and he heard Jack quickly make his way to the door. As soon as it closed behind him he heard Jack break into a run leaving him alone.


	16. Chapter 16

Spending time with the Doctor was always frustrating. Being able to look but not touch, flirt but not follow through was enough to send him running back to the arms of a Welshman despite the offer of all of space and time. This though was torture. Watching the Doctor aching with need so badly that he was humping the floor after being told that it was culturally appropriate to take him by force was nearly too much to bear. 

He wanted him, gods, he wanted him, and right now he’d beg for it. He could go back right now and have the last of the timelords begging at his feet. Instead, he stripped out of his clothes and headed into the water, taking his cock in hand almost violently, pounding towards his release with thoughts of taking the Doctor just as hard. 

After he spilt himself into the water he felt disgusted. He’d just fantasized about raping his friend and the thoughts did not sit well. He knew he wasn’t a good man but he had thought himself a better man than that. He took the time to air dry before donning his clothes once more and making his way back to the cabin.

When he arrived he was grateful to find the Doctor asleep. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take. Before this he’d always assumed that the Doctor was asexual, some people were after all and Rose had told him it never got beyond holding hands. He also knew he should check to see if the man had come again. If he had he’d wake sticky with his own mess but Jack couldn’t tolerate seeing him bared or worse hearing him beg, so he left him alone.

He considered the irony of it briefly, most of his life he would have happily traded a limb to have the Doctor want him this badly and frankly he still would if his friend made that choice of sound mind. Unfortunately, the timelord had explicitly told him not to act on his advances and that was trust. The Doctor was trusting him to be a better man. He’d spent the better part of his life asking himself, “What would the Doctor do”. 

The Doctor was his personal Jiminy Cricket, flawed though he knew him to be. He always tried to do the right thing and damned if Jack was going to disappoint him when it came to this. But he’d forgive you. The man he was before a self-cleaning con in 1941 whispered in the back of his mind. Would he? He’d forgiven the Master after he’d turned the world to hell

Then again the Master wasn't a horrendous anomaly in time who didn’t have the courtesy to stay dead. 

Then it hit him, he would forgive him. He wouldn’t have a choice. The Doctor had already told him as much. ‘Claiming’ had a telepathic component, once taken he’d want to please his attacker. The ultimate Stockholm syndrome. Life-long rape that he’d beg for, completely bereft of the ability to say ‘no.’

Jack shuddered. Doing that to anyone, much less the Doctor, was unthinkable. He might be a killer but he wasn’t the kind of man who kept a sex-slave. 

He made a promise to himself that it was off the table no matter how the Doctor begged or pleaded. He wasn’t competent to make that decision during heat and even when he wasn’t in heat it would play on his mind that another heat would soon follow.

He could help him with the symptoms. Teach him to manage them himself and keep him company, talk him through it if necessary but he would never subject him to claiming.


	17. Chapter 17

Jack woke because something was poking him in the ribs. First, he rolled over to avoid it and then it followed him and got more persistent. When he opened his eyes the Doctor was standing over him, still bound from the waist up and using his foot to gently but insistently wake Jack.

“I’m done, untie me,” he said by way of greeting.

“That’s it? It’s over just like that?” Jack queried “How can you be sure?”

The Doctor gave an exasperated sigh. “I need to urinate and I’m hungry. It is done, so if you don’t mind?” He turned to offer his bound hands to Jack.

Jack got up and began picking out the knots, it wasn’t difficult and he was an old hand at tying and untying various men, women and sentient plants so it didn’t take too long. When the Doctor let down his arms he got a bit of a cramp so Jack helped him work loose the muscles for a few minutes

After checking the traps, the Doctor went down to wash in the river. Jack made a half-hearted comment about joining him but his heart wasn’t in it and the Doctor just made a brief dismissive noise as he headed down to the water to wash and clean the clothes he’d been wearing for nearly a week.

When he returned Jack was cooking and the windows were all open to allow the breeze to remove the musk and pheromones that hung heavily in the air after his heat. Storm clouds were already beginning to build and he doubted they would be able to air out the smell in just one day, especially to his finely tuned senses. 

He hung his wet clothes on the line strung lengthwise across the cabin knowing that they would take quite a long time to dry with the relative humidity. He felt a sudden pang of loss at the thought that the Tardis would have completed a full wash/dry/press in less than 10 minutes. 

“Feeling better?” Jack asked as he roasted cubes of meat on a skewer.

“Much,” the Doctor confirmed.

“Are we okay?” Jack asked a little more timidly.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” The Doctor responded sounding genuinely confused.

“I didn’t exactly keep my end of the bargain” Jack admitted guiltily

“Ah, well, I think we can both agree that it was quite difficult under the circumstances.” The Doctor blushed

“Well, I was thinking about things that could make it easier. I don’t want to take advantage of you but I could leave one of your hands free so that you could take care of it yourself” Jack offered

“Sorry, I’m not quite sure I follow. I don’t see where that would be beneficial and I’d much rather not discuss it at the moment.”

“It would let you masturbate.” Jack spelt it out for him.

The Doctor made a pained squeaking noise and then began pacing looking around the room desperately for something to defect to but the room was nearly empty. 

“Oh, um...Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance! The process that transmits markers that creates subtle differences between genetically identical organisms and creates slight differences. Fascinating really and it doesn't involve my genitals.”

“Doctor, be a grown-up. There is nothing wrong with masturbation.” Jack stuck the back end of the skewer in the sand lining the fire pit so he could lean back on his heels and see the Doctor better.

“You know it isn’t even just one thing You’ve got self-sustaining metabolic loops, structural templating, RNA silencing and there is a fourth one what was that…”

“Masturbation could give you relief without my involvement. It could make it easier on you and me both.” Jack stood to speak with the Doctor at the same level.

“...Chromatin marks! Little groups of methyl or acetyl that bind to nucleotides or histones altering gene expression patterns.”

“Give me a good reason why it won’t work and I’ll shut up about it.” Jack folded his arms across his chest as he watched the Doctor.

The Doctors mouth worked open and closed a few moments before he looked away and said: “I don’t know how.”

“You don’t know how?” Jack said incredulously

“Is there an echo? That’s what I said.” The Doctor made his way to the fire pit and picked up the skewer that Jack had abandoned and held it over the fire “We should figure out a grill or a spit or something to make this easier, I’m starving, I haven't eaten in six days and you want to talk about obscenities.”

“It isn’t obscene, it is perfectly natural.” Jack sat by the Doctor and began to make a second skewer. “Before today I would have bet good money that everyone did it or at least had done it in the past but you’re serious aren’t you.”

The Doctor sighed loudly at the continuing conversation “The medication that prevents me from going into heat completely inhibits all of those functions, I’ve been taking it since I was a child.”

“Are you telling me you are a complete virgin? That you’ve never even had an erection before last week?” Jack was aghast.

“No, there is a second medication that will force an erection. Intercourse was frowned upon but it was available for contributing genetic material to the looms. I’ve had, oh let me think...Five?”

“You’ve only had five erections in your whole life?” 

The Doctor nodded “Three for looming my children, which was mechanical in nature and two for intercourse to see what the fuss was about.”

“Jesus Doc, you’ve only had five orgasms in your whole life?”

“No, counting my heat I’ve had two. The looming device stimulates ejaculation through electric shock under a general anaesthetic and my first sexual encounter I didn’t finish.”

“Wow,” Jack ran a hand through his hair. He really didn’t know what to say to that. For all intents and purposes, the Doctor had spent his whole life chemically castrated. 

“Can we eat now?” the Doctor asked snidely “I really don’t enjoy talking about this.”

“Yeah, go ahead, you can have this one too. I need to take a walk.” Jack handed him the skewer he’d been holding in the fire and left.


	18. Chapter 18

Jack went down the steps and into the woods needing a moment to clear his thoughts. He couldn’t conceive of a life that didn’t have sex in it, it just wasn’t something he could wrap his head around. It was his entertainment, his stress relief, the way he showed love and friendship and sometimes how he worked out his frustrations. In his time it wasn’t only accepted, it was encouraged. Something you could do if you got bored or something you could share if you wanted to get to know someone better. 

Now the Doctor was, through no fault of his own, taking something he loved and complicating the hell out of it. He’d medicated desire and sexuality out of his life since childhood and now it was showing up with a vengeance and he had no concept of how to handle it. Whole legions of fantasies he’d had about the Doctor died in his head. He’d never pictured a nervous virgin whose whole species reproduced under general anaesthesia. He craved sex during heat but the topic made him squirm and evade when brought up later.

It was one hell of an elephant to have in a room as small as the one they shared, The more Jack thought about it the more he determined that they absolutely would have to talk about it. It wouldn’t go away if he ignored it and every six weeks he would be begging for it and Jack knew his resolve wouldn’t hold out forever under the Doctor’s pleading. Eventually, he’d give in and do something they’d both regret when the Doctor was once again of sound mind.

The crinkling sound of mylar broke Jack from His thoughts and he instantly stopped his journey through the woods to investigate its source. He knelt down and sorted through the leaf litter to find a piece of garbage. It was a wrapper off one of the ration bars, apple flavour. He and the Doctor had meticulously kept every bit of their trash. The mylar wrapping on the bars was watertight and they used them to hold sticky foods they had foraged. They hadn’t eaten many of them as they were both skilled and lucky enough to find an abundance of food between fishing and traps. Seven weeks in and they had more than half of their ration bars left and they hadn’t even opened the beans or grain.

Somebody wasn’t as careful as they were. Jack moved quietly and really looked around himself. A few feet from the wrapper it looked like something had been dragged through the leaf litter exposing the mud underneath. For that to be visible it would have to have been made in the last day. Anything older would have been washed away by the heavy rains. He listened intently to see if he could hear anything to indicate the owner of the wrapper was still around. He checked the sun and realized that the direction he was heading was back towards the processing centre and he cursed his foolishness. He didn’t want to be caught unaware so he followed the marks on the ground quietly and cautiously.

Twenty-feet further there was a smell of decay. Perhaps his mystery man had caught an animal and left the corpse to rot. He and the Doctor used everything they could of an animal when they caught one and anything not used to bait more traps was buried or burned to not draw predators. So far they’d been catching omnivorous scavengers, which wasn’t surprising since they used offal to bait the traps. He had hopes that they’d eventually be able to capture some herbivores alive and do some small-scale farming.

He closed in on the smell of decay but all he could hear were the sounds of carrion-eating birds as he rounded a dead tree they took flight and he found what they’d been eating. It wasn’t, as he suspected, a foraged animal. It was a man, dead for less than a day and already ravaged by animals. He’d been dragging his pack which had caused the deep furrow in the wet ground. As Jack examined the scene he concluded their fellow prisoner had been far less equipped to deal with the situation than he or the Doctor.

The man had taken off his shirt, probably to combat the heat but had sunburned badly and it had gotten infected. He was wet, either from the rain or the putrid waters of the surrounding swamp and his gear was growing mould. Jack checked the pack he was dragging and found blankets, tarps and food but it didn’t seem like he’d taken any tools from the processing centre. Perhaps he didn’t know how to use them. His water bottles were either emptied or filled with the cloudy water of the swamps which Jack surmised that drinking had sped his death from heat infection or exhaustion. 

Jack pondered what to do for a few minutes. While the Doctor might not approve, supplies were in extremely short supply and this man certainly didn’t need them anymore. He emptied the pack and repacked it carefully taking note of what the man had deemed valuable. There was another knife and more of the synthetic rope that was better then what they could make themselves, the beans had begun to sprout but could be eaten now while they saved their own for planting when the season rolled around for it. The grain was intact. The oil was unused and Jack was glad of that as the animals they’d been finding were lean and yielded little fat for cooking or eventually making soap. The clothes, tarp, blankets, mat and the pack itself had a light dusting of green mould but could still be salvaged by washing and drying thoroughly. 

Jack hesitated for a moment about stripping the body, knowing the Doctor definitely wouldn’t approve of that but eventually removed the man’s clothing and boots. The boots were not the same size as either his or the Doctor’s but the rubber could be used for tool handles and he knew that there was a length of metal spanning the sole that kept them from bending in the terrain. Waste not, want not and all that. By the time he’d finished the first heavy drops of rain were beginning to fall so he hastened his way back to the cabin with a dead man’s pack on his shoulders.


	19. Chapter 19

When Jack made it back to the cabin he was soaked to the skin and even with the relative heat the breeze made him shiver. He went up the stairs and gently opened the door, not sure how well his homemade hinges would hold in the gale. The door jerked and the wood creaked but jack didn’t let go pulling it to behind him and rigging it shut with the makeshift latch. The pack on his back was saturated so he slid it off and set it down in the rapidly developing puddle. The Doctor looked at him curiously from across the fire.

“What have you got there?” He said, sitting up a little taller. He’d finished eating but he knew jack hadn’t so he added a few split logs to the fire to bring it back up into a blaze suitable for roasting more meat. 

“Found an abandoned pack on my little walk, figured we could use the extra supplies,” Jack said as he began to strip off his wet shirt and hang it on the line. 

The Doctor drew in a breath at the sight of Jack’s bare chest and further held it as he shimmied out of his wet trousers. “Just found it did you?”

“Yeah, it’s been exposed to the elements so there is a little mould, we’ll have to wash it really good tomorrow during the dry time. I’ll need your help as it includes all three blankets, another mat and some spare clothes. Not to mention the pack itself.” Jack commented as he peeled out of his soggy pants and grabbed a handful of the strips of cloth he’d used as bandaged for the Doctor to dry off. 

The Doctor stared at Jack, really seeing him for the first time. This man could be my alpha. He thought to himself. Jack wasn’t aroused but his member was still a good five inches long and the Doctor wondered if it became larger than that or if he stayed the same. He knew his own doubled in size but he was only about three and a half flaccid. 

Jack turned and caught the Doctor staring and before he could stop himself he broke into a huge grin. The Doctor immediately looked away, the tips of his ears turning bright pink.

“Like what you see?” Jack commented

“I don’t know, I haven’t looked yet.” The Doctor said quickly and made his way over to the pack. “Anything is more than we had, and we had precious little, to begin with.” He deflected.

“Uh-huh,” Jack thought about pressing the issue but he worried the Doctor might not be as completely over his heat as he thought he was and decided to let it pass. Instead of teasing, he began to get dressed in some dry clothes as the Doctor emptied the pack. 

He put everything cloth to one side, Jack was right it would need to be washed or the mould would spread in the humidity. He’d make up a batch of the antiseptic leaves in one of the water bottles. It would need to steep so he’d fill a bottle from the rain. They didn’t like to drink rain-water as it carried all the foulness that collected in the trees when it fell but it would do for cleaning as any microbes in it would be killed by the mixture the same as the mould would. Looking at the bottles in the pack he decided he’d use those.

Whoever had used the pack before had filled them with water that was heavy with organic matter and the plastic was slightly discoloured by it. He had no idea what type of plastic it was, whether the contaminates would leach into it and affect liquid put in it later but he didn’t want to come down with dysentery so these four bottles would be used for non-food uses. He was happy to see the glass jar of oil was intact and unopened. The four ration bars had intact wrappings so he put those with his and Jacks, to be eaten if nothing else was available. He was disappointed that the plastic bag of sugar was empty, it looked like it had been left open and the contents dissolved in the rain. 

The beans were in a cloth bag and some of them had sprouted, All had been soaked and they’d need to be consumed right away unless they decided to let them grow and eat them as green vegetables. It was too late in the year to plant them and have a harvest. If they were still in the same place next year they might consider planting the bags he and Jack had to see if they could bolster their supply of dry goods, assuming the winter wasn’t so harsh that they were forced to eat them. The grain was in mylar like the bars and unopened so he put that with their other food supplies as well.

When he pulled the boots out of the pack he began to get suspicious. They’d only been given one pair of boots each and even if someone had run from an animal and had to abandon their pack, they wouldn’t likely leave their boots behind unless they had been attacked while sleeping and had to make a run for it.

“Jack, where did you say you found this stuff?” The Doctor inquired

“About 200 yards into the woods towards the processing centre,” Jack said

“Did it look like someone had made camp there?” The Doctor said with worry in his voice “There could be some poor man out in this rain, Barefoot and helpless. If there is we have to find him.” The Doctor moved over to the clothes to see what they had if this man had received the same kit as he and Jack he could tell what he’d been sleeping in and how urgent it was to find him. He’d likely die of exposure despite the warmth if he was as underdressed as he looked to be. Two shirts, two pairs of trousers, wait. The trousers. The trousers had blood on them. 

“I wouldn’t worry about it Doc I don’t think he’s there anymore,” Jack said He didn’t want to be out in the rain looking for a man he already knew was dead.

“Jack,” The doctor said seriously still holding the bloody trousers as he stood “Did you see this man?”

Jack thought about lying but he knew the Doctor had always been able to tell when he did in the past. “Yes, I saw him.”

“Did you kill him for his things?” He said only just above a whisper.

“What?” Jack was aghast “No, of course not. He was dead when I found him. Looked like he had sun poisoning and probably sepsis. He wasn’t wearing either shirt. I think the heat got him and then between the sun and the filth…” Jack held his hands out palms up and shrugged

“He was already long gone, the wildlife had gotten to him.”

The Doctor put the trousers back in the pile and then went to the door, he moved both sleeves up and opened the door to wash his hands in the rain.

“Give me his bottles, I’m going to wedge them between the steps to fill with rain.” The Doctor said tonelessly.

“I’m sorry Doc, I should have just told you outright. He didn’t need this stuff anymore and it could make a real difference to us.” Jack was almost pleading as he handed him the four plastic litre bottles.

“I understand Jack, did you....did you bury the body?” He asked as he wedged the bottles between the top two steps then retreated before he got too wet.

“No, I didn’t...it was starting to rain…” Jack justified himself.

The Doctor nodded “Then that’s what we’ll do tomorrow.” 

“Doctor…” Jack began to argue

“No Jack, it is too close to us. It will draw large predators and if it gets into the water it could make it hazardous to drink and most importantly, it is the right thing to do.” The Doctor said insistently.

“Ok, Doc.” Jack sighed “For what it is worth, I’m sorry.”


	20. Chapter 20

The Doctor took his still-damp clothes off the line and changed into them while facing into the corner furthest from Jack. Without answering Jack’s questions as to what he was doing he went outside and headed down the stairs. The rain was coming down in sheets now and a good four inches of water were cascading down around his ankles towards the spring. They always made sure to fill their water bottles first thing in the morning when the spring was filled more with water from the aquifer than runoff. While they had been burying their waste the animals in the forest certainly weren’t and they didn’t want to risk drinking water that had flowed through the wooded area.

Underneath the cabin, they had built a shelf to hold cut lumber off the ground so it wouldn’t rot. Above that, there were nets which held a variety of other materials they had foraged from the local area such as banana leaves and stalks, palm fronds, moss and little bits and bobs they thought might be useful but would blow away were they not secure. The wood on the shelf was only wet at the ends. They had some pieces as long as the cabin some cut in three-foot lengths and some cut in twelve-inch rounds which would later be cut into firewood. He chose two of the twelve-inch pieces from the middle so they would be as dry as they could be. One was about fourteen inches in diameter the other was about eight.

He walked carefully back up the steps and brought them into the cabin before placing them near the fire and latching the door. With the fire newly built up, Jack had taken the animal they had caught this morning and was using the knife and one of the large, smooth river rocks as a cutting board. They had collected a large number of such rocks, worn smooth from the flowing water for various purposes around the cabin. They used them to crush and grind things, as a flat surface for performing other work and they would heat them up in the fire to warm the cabin through the night without leaving an open flame going while they slept.

The cabin wasn’t even close to airtight, it was draughty and water came in at the windows only to be deflected onto the floor by the shudders. There were a great many things they would need to do to make it suitable for the winter but they had to worry about the rains first. The Doctor changed back into his dry clothes and hung the wet ones once again on the line. Now that he’d soaked them once again with half the day gone, he expected they’d still be damp come morning. 

He took the laser saw, which they kept inside except for brief periods where they took it out to charge its battery with the small solar panel set into the side, and cut the 8-inch diameter log down to two six-inch pieces. After that, he changed the setting of the saw and cut the top two inches off the fourteen-inch wide log with one of the joining cuts so that the two-inch piece would fit snugly on the larger piece. That done he took all but the two-inch piece and placed them in the sand surrounding the fire.

He took two thick sticks they used to manipulate the fire and removed several small glowing coals and placed them at the centre of each piece of wood. He allowed them to smoulder and burn the wood until the coals went out. By then Jack had finished eating so he passed one of the smaller logs to Jack with instructions to take the knife and carve out all the ash. They worked together quietly, chipping away burnt wood then putting another coal in until they had hollowed out the logs. The two eight-inch pieces were now bowls and the larget piece was more like a bucket. They used a saw again to cut off the excess on the outside and to make the bottoms nice and flat. All that was left to do was scrub them with sand and they’d have nice smooth vessels to eat and cook with. 

The process had taken the whole day and now it was dark but still raining. He took the saw and some other woodworking tools and sat down with the two-inch lid to the bucket. While Jack roasted the remains of the animal they’d caught that morning for supper, he used the light of the fire to trim down the lid to one-inch disk with a handle in the middle.

After they ate he took two of the strips of cloth they’d used for bandages, wet them and then he and Jack spent a couple of hours sanding the bucket, bowls and lid until they were smooth. The insides were darker from being burned but it was good work. As a finishing touch, he took a length of homemade rope and bound the bucket with a carriers knot, giving himself two handles he could carry it with even with it full. He put the lid on and put a second length of rope through the handles and hung it from the rafters, stood back and looked pleased with himself.


End file.
